When noble principles serve to package a nasty content.

Following the fall of Tripoli, the “Guide” continued to imitate Hitler’s reassurances of “final victory” from his last bunker. Meanwhile Algeria has allowed the smarter members of the Gaddafi family to enter its territory. The generous host country resists the extradition of the “fugitives” –not “refugees”- to Libya whose courts are eager to have them. The protection extended is justified by citing humanitarian reasons. The benign terminology harks back to the right to refuge agreed upon in the aftermath of the last world war when millions were displaced by government persecution.  

The phrase used conjures up a picture full of illusions. It tells of a desperate family fleeing the kind of persecution that is all too often the lot of the blameless. Amidst bundled belongings, exhausted helpless women are sitting on worn suitcases. Emaciated and frightened toddlers and innocent youngsters complete the somber image. Due to the controversial activities of a relative, these unfortunates appear to be politically tainted innocents persecuted because of the alleged activities of their families. So far, if the image is accurate, the request of refuge is justified. Therefore, the granting of protection appears to be a humanitarian duty. 

However, any sense of reality demands that, in the light of the facts of the case at hand, the picture be corrected slightly. The family that rolled across the border in a convoy of armed limousines carrying loads of valuables might not quite fit into the image sketched in pervious paragraph. That is so even if the Algerian government makes efforts to conjure up the impression that the idealized picture is fitting the case. A roll call of the fictitious “huddled mass” will bring us closer to a correction of the distortion.

One of the refugees is the Brother Leader’s daughter. She is more than just a plain “girl person” misfortunate enough to belong accidentally to the family of a controversial figure. The lady is an adult and as such she has built an extensive record of her own. As an attorney, Aisha Gaddafi has been on the team that defended Saddam Hussein when an Iraqi court tried and convicted that eccentric leader. In itself, that defense is interesting, perhaps even revealing. Even so, it is not a matter to be held formally against her. Only totalitarians consider the defense of those they charge to be an indicator of guilt that matches that of the accused and subsequently condemned “enemy of the people”. (This is why intimidated defenders are inclined to ask in their closing statement that their client be properly chastised.) What counts in the case of Aisha is her full participation in the abuse of power perpetrated by her ruling family. 

Perhaps the reader will be able to recall several points made by “Duly Noted” about a drawn out case that began with some of the junior Gaddafis on the rampage abroad. Periodically, when new developments rolled in, the numerous installments were presented under the subtitle “The Dictator’s Tantrum”. That tantrum was caused by an incident evolving out of Aisha’s brother Hannibal’s stay in a luxury hotel (what else!) in Geneva. The stay was used to stage a notorious performance that has led to a crisis between Switzerland and Libya. The confrontation came about because Hannibal and his wife abused the personal servants that travelled with them. Shocked by what they were exposed to, the hotel’s employees called the police. Hannibal, who had a privileged family membership but no diplomatic status, was duly arrested and spent a night in jail. Thereafter, in response to the intervention of “diplomacy” that ignored the evidence created by a documented deed and which only considered family ties, led to Hannibal’s release. 

Greatly irked by the disrespect shown to a favored son by local police, Daddy Gaddafi had two Swiss –one was of Arab descent- incarcerated. The charges leveled were, even if prompted up, only minor. After nearly two years, the hostages were let go once Switzerland, to her shame, apologized and paid a ransom. Aisha, who was part of the vacationing clan, played a leading role in the affair. She showed up in the hotel’s lobby and threatened the locals with the dire consequences for Switzerland in revenge for the insolence of enforcing her laws on her own territory. 

The spoiled and perverted son Hannibal of Geneva fame is one of the fugitives now protected by Algeria. True to his MO, these days the man has again become the center of a new, and this time internationally registered scandal. Obviously, as the “Leader’s” son, Hannibal thought himself to be licensed to exploit and mistreat his servants. It all happened during the last days of the tottering régime. A foreign maid that claims not having been paid for two years and who was held as a virtual slave, had the temerity to ask for money. In retaliation for her provocative insolence, the unfortunate woman became the suffering subject of shocking chastisement. 

Most likely, the challenged system of family affair tyranny has felt the need to demonstrate its resolute will to suppress uppity underlings. Shoot them in the streets, flog them in the palaces. The point needed to be made that insolent behavior will not be tolerated. Repeatedly, the provoked Gaddafis poured boiling water over their victim and then forbade her to seek medical help. The disfigured woman was discovered once her masters fled to Algeria. That way the matter, gruesome and blood curling pictures and all became an item of the pictorially interested global press’ attention. Those that follow the news will be aware of the case that was presented under the headline “The Nanny in Need”. Therefore, scores of people and numerous donors are alerted because the penniless Ethiopian woman needs top-notch medical attention to rehabilitate her. 

An international effort to collect money and to connect the nanny to appropriate services is under way. Unlike the flight of the Gaddafis, red tape makes the execution of the project difficult. The woman has no papers whatsoever: Her employers have confiscated her passport. Entering a country that has the facilities that match the injuries requires quite a bit of an effort to circumvent the visa rules that normally apply. 

With the foregoing in our mind, the refuge granted to the Gaddafis on “humanitarian grounds” raises eyebrows. The asylum extended appears to be an attempt to aid a criminal clan. Through its documented behavior of perennial inhumanity, the protected Gaddafi gang has forfeited all moral grounds for safe haven on humanitarian grounds. The Gaddafi gang has systematically ignored the standards of humanity and civilization when it had the power and the privilege to do so with impunity. However, the Algerian government has not yet been exposed to the storm of that swept away regional dictatorships. Due to that, it can be suspected of nurturing a sense of affinity with the folks that are going out of business in Libya. If so, Algeria will understandably disagree. Nevertheless, what the guests she chooses to harbor deserve is not asylum to protect them but a tribunal to judge them.